Medicare covered Screening Services

Medicare Screening Services

Physicians are often confused about how to document and report preventive services provided to their Medicare patients. This document is designed to assist physicians in documenting, reporting and receiving reimbursement for these services.
Medicare does not cover comprehensive preventive visits (99381-99397). However, Medicare does cover certain screening services which are often performed during preventive visits such as:

• Screening pelvic exam
• Collection of screening Pap smear specimen
• Interpretation of the Pap smear test (reported by the laboratory)
• Screening hemoccult
• Screening mammography
• Screening bone mass measurement
• Initial preventive physical examination (Welcome to Medicare examination)
• Diabetes screening
• Cardiovascular blood test
• Tobacco use cessation counseling

The table at the end of this document provides an overview of Medicare screening services. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have published several educational products that describe covered screening services available to Medicare patients.